The invention relates to a system for processing chip and/or magnetic stripe cards, i.e., to a so called card personalization system. With such a system on the one hand card/userspecific data is recorded on the chip (semiconductor module) and/ or the magnetic stripe, and on the other hand card/user specific data is applied on the card body. For this purpose such a system comprises a chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station in which the chip and, if required, magnetic stripe processing is integrated in a known manner with a card body processing station. While the data recorded on the chip or the magnetic stripe, respectively, can generally be changed because the corresponding storage media can be written several times, the data applied on the card body cannot be changed. The unchangeable data is applied to the card body, for example, by laser inscription, by thermal transfer printing, or by embossing. The size of these cards is standardized by international standards (see ISO 7810).
A system of this type is, for example, known from DE 30 49 607. In this system the cards which have been removed from a card supply magazine which contains the cards to be processed, successively first travel through the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station where the changeable data is recorded and then through the card body processing station where the unchangeable data is applied. After the recording of data on the chip and/or the magnetic stripe it is checked whether the recording has been effected properly. This can be done in the chip and/or the magnetic stripe processing station or in a separate inspection station. Cards on which data recording on the chip and or magnetic stripe was not carried out properly will not be supplied to the card body processing station where the unchangeable data is applied. Those cards are rejected. A problem of such a system, however, is the card throughput because the processing times in the chip and/or the magnetic stripe processing station and in the card body processing station differ from each other considerably. A typical example: Processing time for data recording on a microprocessor chip is approximately 20 sec; processing time for the application of alphanumerical characters by laser inscription on a card body is approximately 6 s. The slow "chip personalization" limits the card throughput.
Another system is known from EP 0 256 921. This system, however, permits the recording of data only on the chip and/or the magnetic stripe and not the application of unchangeable data on the card body. This system therefore comprises only one type of processing station provided the chip and magnetic stripe processing is considered integrated in one processing station. Due to the fact that the recording of data in a chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station takes much more time than the time for removing a card from the card supply magazine, for the transport of this card to the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station and the transfer of this card from this same system, multiple of these chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations are provided, i.e., while the card first transported is being processed in a chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station, the next chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations are already filled and so on. For this purpose the system comprises several chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations arranged side by side. A gripper which can be linearly moved in front of these stations removes cards to be processed from the card supply magazine, carries them to the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations and inserts them into same whereby the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations are successively filled. When a card is completed the gripper pulls that card out of the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station and carries it to a storage magazine. For the application of unchangeable data on the card body, e.g., by laser inscription, the cards would have to be removed from the storage magazine and supplied to another system.
Furthermore, a system developed by the applicant is known (see Brochure HSP4000), which comprises both a chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station and a card body processing station in the form of a laser inscription station. Therein, four chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations are provided, while only one laser station is provided. This accounts for the fact that the recording of data on the chip and/or magnetic stripe takes considerably longer than the laser inscription on the card body. In this system the cards to be processed are removed from the card supply magazine by means of a robot arm, equipped with a suction cup, subsequently carried to a chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station by the robot arm, and transferred to the processing station. After data recording on the chip and/or the magnetic stripe the cards are removed from the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station by the robot arm and then supplied to the laser station. After completion of the laser inscription on a card, the card is removed from the laser station by the robot arm and placed into a storage magazine. Compared to the system according to the above mentioned EP 0 256 921, this system though comprising the multiple slow chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations and one card body processing station for the application of unchangeable data on the card body, does nevertheless not enable an increase in the card through put which is required because of the ever increasing demand for cards, due to its design. The robot arm with its three dimensional motions requires a significant amount of space, which again results in correspondingly long card transport travels and times. In addition, the control of such a robot arm is relatively sophisticated and also time consuming. This imparts limits on the extension of parallel processing through the addition of several chip and/or magnetic stripe processing stations because this system cannot supply cards to these additional stations. Even in the case that the processing time of the chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station, which is slow compared to the laser inscription, is reduced for example by faster recording methods or by a reduction of the data volume to be recorded, this system would reach its limits.